There must be some Tolkien geeks here who can answer a question I’ve had for quite a while.
When Smaug is headed to Laketown, they cut the bridge. Why?
The narrator tells us that if Smaug fell into the water the lake would quench him, but surely he could fly from the land to the island without having to rest on the bridge. He flew all the way from the mountain, after all. The lake couldn’t be that large.
The only weakness in Smaug’s armor was a spot on his soft underbelly. By standing on the bridge Smaug would have been able to attack the city with fire without exposing his underbelly. By destroying the bridge Smaug was instead forced to attack from the air and at greater risk both from dipping into the water by impact, accident or exhaustion, or in taking a shot to the belly.
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